Egyptian stocks fell, pushing the benchmark index to its biggest three-day drop since November, on investor concern over the health of President Hosni Mubarak following surgery earlier this month, Bloomberg reported. EFG-Hermes Holding, the biggest publicly traded Arab investment bank, headed for the steepest one-day drop since December. The EGX 30 index's 3.84 per cent retreat was the most among 93 indexes tracked by Bloomberg.
"The retail market is feeling a little nervous about the president," said Angus Blair, head of research at Cairo-based investment bank Beltone Financial. "When he returns, I guess you get more calmness." The benchmark index lost 5.5 per cent in the past three days, the most since November 30. The EGX 30 closed at 6,353.14 points.
"President Mubarak is recovering well," said Annette Tuffs, a hospital spokeswoman. Markus Buechler, a surgeon at the hospital, said on March 7 that no cancer was found in either the gallbladder or intestinal polyp that was discovered and removed.
EFG-Hermes lost 6.1 per cent to 28.35 Egyptian pounds.
Telecom Egypt retreated 7.6 per cent to LE18.11. The company's net income for the full-year was LE3.05 billion ($557 million), below the mean estimate of LE3.2 billion, according to 14 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg.
CI Capital, a Cairo-based investment bank, downgraded Telecom Egypt to "sell" from "buy."
Orascom Telecom, the biggest mobile-phone operator in the Middle East by subscribers, fell as much as 4.7 per cent to LE5.68 per share. "OT fell on investor concern about fourth-quarter earnings," Mohamed Radwan, a trader at Pharos Holding in Cairo, said in an e-mail.
Orascom may report a $26 million loss in the last three months of 2009 because of tax payments in Algeria, EFG-Hermes said in a note yesterday.
On Friday, Morgan Stanley downgraded shares in Indonesia, Peru and Egypt to "underweight" and lowered rating on Poland to "equal-weight".
While Egypt has underperformed Turkey since Morgan Stanley advised investors to favor the African nation, it has rallied more since the start of the year, Morgan Stanley said in a report.
OT said it had covered the unsold portion of a $800 million rights issue to ensure liquidity as it challenges an Algerian claim for back taxes.
Orascom had covered 99.67 per cent of the rights issue when it closed earlier this month. Existing shareholders were given until March 10 to subscribe to the remaining 0.33 per cent in a second offering.
Orascom said both ordinary shares and GDRs had been oversubscribed.
The rights issue was launched in part to ensure liquidity while the company fights a bill for up to $647 million in back taxes Algeria says is owed by its Djezzy mobile subsidiary.
Algerian Prime Minister Ahmed Ouyahia said on Friday that Orascom had told his government it had no intention of leaving the country.
On Sunday, Al Ezz Dekheila Steel, a unit of Ezz Steel, posted a 78 per cent decline in its 2009 consolidated net profit to LE641.7 million, beating two forecasts.
EFG-Hermes had forecast the firm's net profit at LE539 million and CI Capital estimated LE505 million.
